The technologies of the state of the art used in the tortilla outlets for the production of nixtamal involves steps as pouring maize, without prior washing, into an open container and in which an amount in excess of lime and water is added; in the bottom of the tank is placed a burner, generally butane-based burner, that is maintained in ignition until the process water reaches a temperature that can be in the range of 88° C. and 96° C. depending on the height above sea level, and the necessary time may be in the range of 60 and 90 minutes, depending on the amount of maize and the capacity and efficiency of the burner. Subsequently, the maize is maintained in the process cooking water for a period of 10 to 12 hours. After the time elapsed, the maize is washed and grinded.
The Nixtamal that is produced in this way loses mostly maize pericarp, wherein said component is composed mainly of insoluble vegetable fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants naturally found therein, as the dilution by excess lime causes that the vegetable fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are thrown away with the wastewater to the drainage. The tortilla/maize rate that is obtained with this nixtamal quality ranges between 130 and 150 kilograms of tortilla per 100 kilograms of maize, i.e. 1.3 to 1.5:1.
The traditional tortilla outlets which mostly is a low-scale business (family owned) about 90% of said tortilla outlets is operating within a production capacity range of 300 to 800 kg (kilograms) of tortilla per day. In order to obtain said production capacity is necessary to produce 350 to 900 kilograms of nixtamal per day. In this kind of business, and in other similar businesses, using nixtamal flour as raw material is based almost the entire supply of tortillas in Mexico.
The economic and product quality results of the tortilla depend significantly of the nixtamal characteristics outlets; however, so far it has not been seriously considered procedures for improve the cooking of maize and equipment for achieve said improvement, in order to improve the profitability and the obtained product as well as being compact, simple to install, with a easily operation and early return of the investment.
The way as currently is produced Nixtamal is susceptible to be widely improved. In view of that, has been designed a new especial apparatus, thereby may be operated under controlled and different process conditions, producing a better nixtamal, namely High Performance Integral Nixtamal.
From total of the tortilla outlets operating in Mexico, approximately 60% of said outlets uses maize as raw material to produce nixtamal which when milled it produces the necessary pulp to the production of tortilla. The remaining 40% uses nixtamalized maize flour, wherein said flour is made in large industrial facilities and which, when mixed with water, it produces a pulp which is used to produce tortilla.
The tortilla/maize ratio that is achieved with traditional system depends on the control degree on the operation thereof and said ratio is within of a range of 130 to 150 kg tortilla per 100 kg maize. The ones that use nixtamalized maize flour achieve a ratio within a range of 175 to 185 kilograms tortilla per 100 kilograms flour.
When a tortilla outlet operates with High Performance Integral Nixtamal produced by the process and special equipment describe and claimed herein, it is obtained a tortilla/maize ratio, using maize as raw material, of 170 to 180 kilograms tortilla per 100 kilograms maize.
This new technology applied to maize and other grains satisfactorily solves the current and background problems in tortilla outlets there in Mexico and using maize as raw material. This new technology provides improvements such as:                the time required for cooking maize and obtaining Nixtamal is significantly reduced;        to prevent the losing of an important part of the grain, namely vegetable fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, wherein said losing affects the production cost and decrease the nutritional properties of the tortilla;        the flow of contaminated wastewater is significantly reducing;        increasing the tortilla/maize ratio, performance, profiting production productivity and cost, when being able to obtain the same amount of tortilla with less maize;        decreasing the production cost by reducing consumption of fuel required for cooking;        to help improve the ecological environment by reducing CO2 emissions to atmosphere and wastewater flows to the drains.        
The process further provides other important advantages like: obtaining a saving within a range of 40% to 50% in the fuel consumption necessary for cooking the maize. This advantage is benefic for the business economics, making them more profitable.
A significant positive result that is obtainable from the reduction in fuel consumption is the decreasing, in the same proportion, of the flue gas emissions, mainly CO2. The gases produced from combustion cause greenhouse effect and consequently changing the weather.
Another important advantage is that tortilla obtained from the High Performance Integral Nixtamal which is obtained by this system and process shows better nutritional properties, so as it practically preserves all components contained in the pericarp, namely: dietary or insoluble vegetal fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. These components are lost in large amounts in the traditional process since they are diluted with cooking water and discarded. Furthermore, this system provides a tortilla with better properties for digestion and assimilation by its fiber additional content and higher gelatinization of the maize starch. These advantages have been obtained by the depth cooking process at a higher pressure and temperature than the traditional process.
It is an advantage of the invention to increase up to two and a half times the content of dietary or vegetal fiber, since the gastrointestinal system cannot digest nor assimilate said vegetal fiber helping to achieve a sense of satiety with lower intake of food, decreasing appetite.
These advantages will provide said benefits for millions of consumers because the tortilla is a basic issue of the daily diet in Mexico.
It is reported annual consumptions per capita on the order of 120 kg in national censuses. This represents an average of 328 grams per day per subject, which is equivalent to about 12 tortillas.
The results discussed here were obtained from real and scaled testing in a typical tortilla outlet. The system has been designed and manufactured for cooking maize and consequently for the production of High Performance Integral Nixtamal. In addition, a commercial stone mill apparatus was installed for milling Nixtamal and producing pulp and subsequently said pulp was introduced to a commercial tortilla machine in order to produce tortillas. In this manner a pilot facility is capable of producing the new High Performance Integrated Nixtamal and pulp producing 3000 tortillas per hour, of a quality higher than the tortilla produced by traditional processes. This pilot facility has been operated daily for several weeks with the results here presented, during this period it has been sold the tortilla produced with the purpose of verifying the acceptance from public.